Tag Archives: pot

Think what you smell is purely incense? Think again. Now, incense has a growing new use– a legal substitute for pot in Las Vegas and elsewhere around the country.

Smoke Depot in Las Vegas currently sells a legal greenish-brown substance called Black Mamba which, for many, creates a highly euphoric feeling similar to marijuana. Collectively known as “Spice,” sister brands include K2, Cloud Nine and Green Buddha.

All are herbs that, many times, are laced with a variant of THC, the psychoactive substance found in marijuana. Though the canister’s gold-and black wrapper warns: “Not for human consumption,” consumers across the country are smoking Spice like pot and experiencing similar effects. But since it doesn’t contain actual THC, Spice isn’t detectable in drug tests.

Black Mamba has been the preferred brand throughout Las Vegas over the last few months, according to numerous shop owners. They’re so popular that stores like Smoke Dept can’t keep them stocked! And the skyrocketing sales are primarily attributed to word of mouth advertising due to the nature of the product.

The products are not cheap. A gram of Black Mamba costs $20 at Smoke Depot and they’ve been selling about 200 grams a week for the past three months.

A number of shops in Las Vegas say they’ve been selling to anyone, including teenagers.

But just because it’s legal doesn’t mean Spice is safe.

In the last two months, a Missouri toxicologist says that he’s seen more than 30 cases of teens with hallucinations, elevated heart rates, vomiting and seizures after using K2.

Las Vegas storeowners say customers are starting to request K2. Spice is still so new that the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services says it hasn’t seen many reports. “It’s on our radar, but there’s not a lot known about it,” spokesman Ben Kieckhefer says.

Users in Las Vegas are experimenting with Black Mamba, K2 and Spice Gold more than any other brands, according to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police narcotics detective Bruce Gentner, and the results haven’t been pretty. “We just had a case where two young men got really sick,” he says. “They bought it at a local smoke shop here, and within minutes of smoking it, they were transported to the hospital with hallucinations, vomiting and panic attacks.”

Black Mamba comes from a plant called Damiana, grown regionally. In its natural form, it’s used in tea and liquor and is a known sleeping aid and aphrodisiac.

Though prohibited in most of Europe, the main ingredients in most Spice are not regulated in the United States.

The DEA is going through preliminary steps to determine whether the substances in Spice should be federally controlled. Then it will collaborate with the Department of Health and Human Services, a process that could take years.

Kansas recently became the first state to ban the compounds, and two counties in Missouri also have barred the substance. The Missouri Senate will take a second vote to send a bill to the House that would ban it statewide and make possession of Spice a felony. Weber School District in Utah recently banned Spice from school grounds.

A three-day convention for marijuana supporters will not happen in Las Vegas. Organizers of “Cannapalooza” say the March event at Mandalay Bay has been cancelled.

According to the group’s website, the hotel “decided to cancel our contract for space,” and the event won’t take place. Organizer Lou Wozinski told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he had set up a meeting with Las Vegas Metro Police on “Cannapalooza” security last month, and found himself in a room with about 100 not to friendly law enforcement officers.

Wozinski says he “felt ambushed, like General Custer surrounded by Indians.” One day later, Wozinski, says Mandalay Bay officials mysteriously cancelled the convention.

“Cannapalooza” was billed by organizers as a “fun, safe, educational event,” and the “largest head shop on the planet.” Wozinski says the event would have brought about 50,000 marijuana fans to Las Vegas.

Federal drug agents won’t pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, including Nevada, under new legal guidelines to be issued today by the Obama administration.

Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.

The guidelines to be issued by the department do, however, make it clear that agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes, the officials said.

The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

This goes back on what was said by Attorney General Eric Holder in March that where he wanted federal law enforcement officials to pursue those who violate both federal and state law, but it has not been clear how that goal would be put into practice.

A three-page memo spelling out the policy is expected to be sent out today to federal prosecutors in the 14 states, and also to top officials at the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration.

The memo, the officials said, emphasizes that prosecutors have wide discretion in choosing which cases to pursue, and says it is not a good use of federal manpower to prosecute those who are without a doubt in compliance with state law.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the legal guidance before it is issued.

The memo, officials said, is designed to give a sense of prosecutorial priorities to U.S. attorneys in the states that allow medical marijuana. It notes that pot sales in the United States are the largest source of money for violent Mexican drug cartels, but adds that federal law enforcement agencies have limited resources.

A Las Vegas group wants to legalize marijuana and they’re offering a unique challenge that could make someone $10,000 richer. That can buy a whole lot of pot for the lucky winner.

The group says it will write a check to anyone who can prove drinking alcohol is safer than smoking marijuana. Marijuana advocates say their goal is to legalize and regulate marijuana.

With this $10,000 challenge, the group says it hopes to educate the public and show that drinking alcohol is more dangerous than smoking pot.

“We are confident that will not need to pay out this $10,000,” said David Schwartz, Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada. At a news conference yesterday, the group said using marijuana is safer than drinking alcohol and hopes their challenge will prove it.

In order to win the payola you must disprove three points: First, that alcohol is significantly more toxic than marijuana. Second, that the health effects from long term alcohol cause more deaths each year than from long term marijuana use. And finally, that violent crime committed by people under the influence of alcohol is more prevalent than violent crime committed by people under the influence of marijuana.

“It’s been on the ballot twice before and in the last round — in 2006 — it garnered 44 percent of the vote which is a record vote. And in the future if we go through the initiative process, we think it will do quite well,” Schwartz said.

But while the group might believe smoking marijuana is safer than drinking alcohol, a local drug and alcohol counselor says the dangers and consequences are actually very similar. Erin Kinard says both lead to addiction, both are a gateway to more serious drugs and both can cause people to become violent.

A controversial billboard is now gone from a busy part of the southern I-215 Beltway in Las Vegas after it received lots of complaints. The billboard advertised the services of Dr. Reefer, a man who promised to help people get prescriptions for medical marijuana.

Although possessing a limited amount of marijuana for medical use is still legal in Nevada, many people think the billboard went too far, despite the fact that there are several risqué billboards dotting the Las Vegas valley.

“They let advertising for pornographers, for casinos and gambling,” said Pierre Werner, also known as Dr. Reefer.

The businessman says he doesn’t sell or grow the ganja. He merely helps others get a license for medicinal marijuana through the Nevada Medical Marijuana Program. He owned the advertisement on the billboard promoting his business, but crews were out Thursday to take it down.

Dr. Reefer claims the billboard company was forced to after several complaints. “I just feel that this is an outrageous insult to Nevadans, to the sick people who I have helped get legal,” he said.

“I am insulted and now I am smoking mad,” Werner said.

For now, the billboard sits in his living room but probably not for long. “I am going to go on the offensive now, the attack, and put up more billboards now. And that’s how I am going to deal with this,” he said.

The billboard was up for about a month and its owner says it costs nearly $7,000 for one month of advertising. Despite signing a one-year contract with the billboard company, it’s no longer here. According to Werner, he was planning to meet with his attorney to see if he could possibly seek any legal action.

Carlos Santana under hypnosis must feel he’s died, gone to heaven, then was lucky enough to have been mysteriously reincarnated smack dab in Sin City. To be honored and appear in a Las Vegas concert series no less, with ticket prices hovering in the rare ionosphere air, most likely exudes an unsurpassed nirvana feeling for the music icon that’s managed to live out his 1960s in 2009.

“Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits” is Santana’s new 72-show residency at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas that launches May 27, with 36 concerts planned for this year and 36 in 2010.

With Santana anything is possible- and usually you can bank on it. Talking and singing about love, light, and spirituality, you never know quite how to read him.

What drives this man of superhuman music talent? Some might arguably say it’s money and really his last stand to go for the gusto, with ticket prices for his new Las Vegas shows ranging from $79 up to $299 — which is a lot of money for many people in this economy.

But their apparently all wrong; Santana says it hogwash: “I have no clue about that. I’m more with, ‘This finger goes onto this note and it makes juicy sounds, and I’m going to make people dance and laugh.’ It’s not like I don’t care or I’m ignorant. It’s just that I’m not wired to have that insignificance on me other than what I’m going to get to give back to other people.

His viewpoint on drugs, on the other hand, is a totally different matter. “I think that the solution to all of this stuff would be to legalize it, decriminalize it, reinvest all that money into teachers in schools.” says Sanatana.

“If we would teach in schools the incredible sensation of climax that it feels to be of service to other people — like Mother Teresa, or Desmond Tutu or the Dalai Lama — smoking pot, and drinking tequila, and watching porno or whatever people do, it pales in comparison when you actually wake up to be of service to people.”

I think we should legalize marijuana. I think Barack Obama should bring the brothers and sisters home — the soldiers. If I was to see him, I would go, ‘Listen to Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ and John Coltrane, and bring the boys home from the war now, like we did with Vietnam.’ They’re not going to come here. People in Vietnam did not come here to attack us after we left them alone. So let’s get rid of that fear, that fantasy, that stuff. Let’s get rid of the bogeyman, because the bogeyman is us looking in the mirror of each other.”

So just maybe his residency in Las Vegas might also be his ticket for euphoric happiness, proving to offer a symbiotic relationship with his favored ganja. Where Las Vegas is not really Amersterdam where anything does go, it’s somewhat friendly to marijuana smokers. “Medicinal use” of course.

After all, Nevada’s voters legalized marijuana for medical purposes in 2000. Patients diagnosed with a “qualifying condition” are allowed to possess small amounts of the drug. They also are allowed to grow it for their own use.

They are not allowed to grow it for lots and lots of other people and sell it to them. But any licensed doctor can prescribe marijuana in Nevada.

But regardless of Santana’s passion and love for good vibes, cannabis and dislike of bogeyman, his upcoming Las Vegas concert series will surely test the mettle of our local entertainment-based economy in these challenging times.

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